Family With More Than 100 years of Service Celebrates Veterans Day

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On Veterans Day, some soldiers are dealing with the impact of serving overseas. For the Oliver family in Van Buren, serving their country is in their blood. Several members even served in the Civil War.

Today, Chuck Oliver is back at home with his family. Oliver served in the U.S. Army for five years. He spent one year in Iraq.

“There are all kinds of stuff,” said Oliver. “Some stuff you see you don’t want to remember, some stuff you see is moving.”

Oliver said he experienced a brush with death almost daily in Iraq.

“We were driving down the road one day and out of the blue our lieutenant was like, take a right. We turned and five seconds later something blew up,” he said.

Oliver suffers from a partial hearing loss because of his time overseas. He says he’s noticed a change in himself since returning home.

“I still have problems with it sometimes. I have problems with people being behind me that I don’t know,” he said.

The Oliver family said it was hard not having Chuck around. They said he even missed the birth of his son while serving his country.

“I’m sorry that he missed it, but I love him,” said his son, Zayne Oliver, now eight years old.

Oliver’s grandmother Nellie said even after all the years, it’s hard seeing her family sent off and returning home.

“They heard different explosions and were just barely missed a few times,” she said.

As the Oliver family celebrated together, they said the continued support they get on Veterans Day is very much appreciated.

“I`d like to thank everybody,” said Oliver. “This means more than most people realize.”